Not Alone
by Crystal RoseWing
Summary: Predaking was not the only Predacon that was presented to Megatron; there was a second that had seemed doomed to die before its first mission… only what happens when it resurfaces years later stronger, smarter, snarkier and caring for two human children? Pure chaos on the Nemesis that's what! PredakingxOC, KnockoutxBreakdown
1. Prologue

**Alright this is my first Transformers fic ever, so please be gentle on me and I promise it will get better as time goes on. The only major pairings at the moment are Predaking x OC and Knockout x Breakdown but there be very well could be more as time goes on. And as to be expected I don't own anything except for the original characters and the plot bunny…**

_Predaking was not the only Predacon that was presented to Megatron; there was a second that had seemed doomed to die before its first mission… only what happens when it resurfaces years later stronger, smarter, snarkier and caring for two human children? Chaos on the Nemesis that's what!_

**Prologue**

**The Songbird**

_In the beginning there had been two…_

_But one had been weaker…_

…_oh so much weaker…_

When the space bridge had first opened and Shockwave brought his creations through it, there had not been just one beast but two… The first one to come through the bridge was the ideal specimen, the large and formidable dragon whose eyes burned with the flame of life roaring behind them and it clearly held power that was far beyond measuring! This creature inspired such fear and awe in those who looked upon its form that even Megatron was shocked by it!

_The second beast was not…_

Not as big as the first, nor as fierce but still it did look rather formidable… In fact this creature was not a dragon at all, but appeared to be the strange amalgamation of two of the earth's native animals, a lion and an eagle. This Predacons metallic body was as black as night and adorned with light gold streaks and large golden eyes. It had a pointed birdlike head with a single decorative crest right in between its eyes, very similar to that of Starscream's. It also had two large pointed ear like audio protrusions that slicked backwards; its front talons were long, sharp and clearly dangerous. And its long tail ended in a truly lethal looking scythe-like blade. Its wings were massive and designed to look like a bird's feathery wings, but each _'feather'_ was as sharp as a swords blade and aglow with the same faint golden light that adorned the rest of its sleek and deadly body.

Shockwave had then explained that the humans had called such a beast a gryphon. And also unlike the first beast... this one was visibly weaker. Quite frankly Shockwave was amazed that it had even come online when he'd activated it. As it had been his earlier attempt at creating a Predacon, and he had perfected his technique with the other. Nonetheless it was still capable of serving its purpose, as it was nothing more than a simpleminded and obedient beast just like its companion. And once both of the Predacons were presented with the sample of Wheeljack's energon they both took to the skies with the intent on hunting down their Autobot prey…

_Shockwave did point out that it would be most unlikely that the gryphon Predacon would survive its first mission and it was only logical to assume that it was not going to return…_

_And for all accounts he was right as his second beast did not return with the first, having apparently been in an accident before even reaching its target..._

_What Shockwave did not know however was that this Predacon did not die…_

_**She evolved…**_

* * *

_On a moonlit night, deep in the snow laden forests of Alaska, a little girl no older than seven was running as fast as she possibly could…_

She ran and ran clutching a bundle of blankets tightly to her chest and although she was sorely tempted to, she did not look back… far too afraid of what she would see. This little girl was not dressed for the weather by any means, wearing only a pair of somewhat warm blue plaid pajamas and her small feet were bare. The temperatures were deathly cold, but no matter how deep the chill in the air was it was no match for the frozen terror that gripped this child down to her very soul. She kept running, the only sounds she could hear were the thundering of her heart in her chest and the disgruntled and unhappy cries of what she held in her arms. A small baby girl; only three months old and just as ill-equipped for the freezing temperatures as the girl who held her. Mere hours ago the seven year old girl had been inside a small cabin that her parents had rented while they were staying in Alaska to hunt. Of course only one _'parent'_ was really related to the little seven year old and that had been her mother… her real father had died some years before and then this new man had come into their home. **(Never once did she call him father… as he scared her far too much and had hit her far too often...) **The baby in the blankets was his; but that didn't matter now… all that mattered was getting as far away from that cabin as possible.

The child didn't really know the full extent of what had happened, the only thing she had seen and heard was her mother arguing with that man. She heard a few things they said and she knew her mother screamed something along the lines of: _'I'm not taking this anymore!' _and _'I'm leaving you!'_ That had been when the man had struck her hard in the face with his fist. Her mother had fallen backwards and hit her head on the side of a wooden table and gone very quiet and still whilst a pool of blood had begun to form underneath her. The seven year old didn't know what to do, but she knew to be afraid… _**Very **_afraid. And it was in this fear that she had grabbed up her little sister and slipped out of a window.

_And then she ran…_

The girl was so scared and at this point and she was also tired, freezing and lost… She didn't know what she was expecting to find out in the woods, all she knew was that it was away from that man. Her own tears streaked down her face as she thought of her mother lying there motionless in a pool of her own blood. Still she trudged on, knowing that if she stopped that man would find them… and she didn't want to think about what would happen then. She tried in vain to shush her little sister's cries, but the baby was far too cold and her wails were only getting louder… The poor child continued on that way for over an hour; running whenever she found the strength but at this point her said strength was nearly nonexistent. The cries of her little sister were also beginning to grow weaker as the baby instinctively huddled closer to the only source of warmth and the infants all to noticeable trembling caused another wave of fresh tears to fall from the girl's eyes… tears that quickly froze in the blistering cold wind.

Finally there was a break in the forest and it opened up to a vast snow-covered meadow. The moon shone down upon the snow with such radiance that it seemed as though the snow itself was glowing. As the young girl finally cleared the forests tree line and set her small frozen eyes upon what to her resembled a sea of pure white, she suddenly became aware that there was something else out there with them…

_For standing less than 30 yards away from the children was the gryphon Predacon…_

* * *

_An accident…_

It had been an accident en route to her target that had changed her fate. An accident that she did not allow her thoughts to linger on lest she would find herself becoming lost within them. She bore the scars of that accident to this day… if one can truly call them scars… Her once golden eyes and highlights had taken on a different color and were now a beautiful shade of electric blue; although the accident had indeed taken _something_ from her… namely all of her memories up to that point. Leaving this Predacon to survive alone using only her own primal instincts.

It was needless to say that she had been very successful by herself. Managing to find a rich supply of food and a warm lair to dwell in, hell she'd even managed to claim quite a vast domain of territory deep in this wilderness. However… there had only been one constant nagging metallic thorn in her side; those ignorant humans always seemed intent on trespassing! Nary a day went by that she didn't have to scare them off or in the cases of the idiots who were dumb enough to fire their crude weapons at her, she'd disembowel them with a single swipe of her razor-sharp talons…

Yes, she had grown powerful and had a vast territory in which she was free to do whatever she wished in. Even if it was nothing more than chasing down and butchering some pathetic lesser creature for sport… only now it seemed as though she was always discontent… always empty, devoid of purpose and of reason. She often felt restless; and that was the reason why she had ventured out of her lair on this particular night… thinking that perhaps a brief walk outside in the cold air might clear her tired processor and allow her to recharge in a bit of peace. Only now imagine her irritation upon stumbling across a human youngling of all things! Must this species always be such an annoyance? She set her large sapphire optics upon the tiny form that dared to approach her and she took on a more intimidating stance. Spreading her large wings out to their maximum length, whipping her bladed tail from side to side in an aggressive manner and lastly lifting up one of her claws and fanning out her lethal talons.

Unsurprisingly the youngling stopped dead in its tracks, but rather than turn tail and run, the small creature fell to its knees before the mighty Predacon; curling its little body around something that it carried in its arms before looking up at the irritated gryphon with large pleading eyes.

"P-please…" The weak little voice shook undoubtedly from the mix of freezing cold and soul gripping fear. This was unexpected and for the first time the Predacon took notice that this youngling was exhausted and had obviously been running from something that had scared it terribly. And in its tiny mind it had somehow reasoned that _**she**_ was less of a threat than whatever it was running from. "p-p-please… h-help us…" It pleaded, barely managing to find the strength to speak. It was then that a weak muffled cry escaped from the baby in the child's arms.

_But it was this sound that triggered some dormant programing deep within this Predacon…_

Her stance eased, no longer entirely sure if she wanted to scare this youngling away. She took a single step towards the child before her and brought her head down for closer look, it was then that she truly saw the pathetic state of this youngling… and the state of the little sparkling it was carrying in its arms. It was all too clear that this sparkling would not last much longer out in this harsh environment… although why this bothered the Predacon at all she didn't know, having been thinking just a few minutes ago how there already were too many humans in this world. Why should these two pathetically weak creatures matter anymore than the rest of their species? Some part of her just wanted to turn and walk away and leave the children to their own devices. But that one persistent protocol kept nagging at her processor… telling her to do something and that she could not just leave them out there to off-line alone in the cold!

"…p-p-please Songbird… please help us." The child whispered with the last glittering shard of hope shining through in her voice. Hoping, praying for a miracle and that this quite monstrous birdlike creature would help them. Thoughts only a child would dare to think in a situation like this.

…_Songbird?_

In spite of the fact that she knew that she was no mere song bird… the gryphon Predacon found that she could not get angry for the youngling's somewhat strange misconception as to what she really was. The little one was half dead at this moment anyway… So inwardly sighing and determining that she would figure this out at another point and just give in to the instinct that threatened to give her a terrible headache should she choose to ignore it. Her attention focused to a more well… vocal problem…

Since she had never spoken out loud before, certainly not in the humans' language… It took her several long minutes of making bizarre and incoherent growls, chirps and clicks before she managed to get her mouth and tongue to function in an acceptable manner.

"…_co…me…"_ She managed to choke out hoarsely, before suddenly finding it unacceptable and trying again. "...come…" This time the word came out considerably clearer and the youngling took notice of it. Those small tired eyes seemed to get a small flicker of life back in them when she spoke that word. "Come." And with that she turned to leave, intent on leading the children back to her lair. Of course after three steps she looked back only to see that the youngling had not moved from the spot, having tried to get her frozen legs to work but had no strength left to do so. Irritated all the more at the situation, the gryphon walked back and carefully scooped the small human up in one of its claws, although was quite careful not to accidentally injure either the youngling or the sparkling. The Predacon then spread her massive wings and took to the sky; but before she actually left the area she noticed that yet another human had just come sprinting out of the woods angrily screaming something that she could not quite make out… But one thing that she could clearly see was that in this humans hands he held a weapon. A shotgun to be precise and it didn't take her half of a second to realize that this must've been the individual who had scared the youngling so. She gently she placed her other claw over the two children, figuring that this would keep them warmer… and they also really didn't have to see what was going to happen next.

The human had been so intent on following little girl's tracks in the snow that he didn't even notice the Predacon until she entered his line vision, diving from the sky straight at him whilst an eerie blue light was emanating from the center of her chest. This light traveled up her long neck before a blast of brilliant blue lightning exploded from her open mouth! Not only did it incinerate him in an instant, but she must have leveled no less than 20 acres of the forest with this single powerful blast!

Feeling in particularly content with what she had just done, the gryphon altered her course and flew away from that snow filled meadow. And after a quick flight, the Predacon finally landed at the base of a towering mountain covered in snow and ice. There was only one way into her lair and it was through a very narrow passageway that was difficult to notice unless you know exactly what to look for. She carefully slipped inside before placing the human youngling on the ground so she could better see where she now was.

The Gryphon's lair was an enormous cave. Big by her standards, but positively colossal to a human! Especially a human child! Not only was this cave massive in size, but it was illuminated by dozens no, hundreds of blue glowing crystalline growths that were scattered all around it. Looking around there were also dozens of other tunnels that undoubtedly went deeper into as well as underneath the mountain. Although the child did not know this, what she was in the center of was an undiscovered vein of energon. What the gryphon Predacon fed off of… But that did not really matter to her right now, all that mattered was that this cave was safe and warm. Having only warmed up slightly in the great creature's claws during the flight, this cave felt like heaven. A slight cooing sound indicated that the baby too was enjoying the sudden increase in temperature.

The Predacon began silently fixing up a section of her cave. Digging a small hole and throwing in some dried wood and brush into it, then slamming her claws into the nearby stone wall causing it to rain a shower of sparks and igniting the contents of the pit. The human youngling eagerly scampered over to the warm fire where she sat with the little sparkling. Feeling the pain of the cold starting to leave her tired and weary body. The gryphon then settled herself down and began inspecting two children she had just brought into her home. Although clearly still a bit nervous, the little girl looked up at her and smiled a weak smile.

"Thank you Songbird." She said softly just as the baby in her arms began to squirm slightly. Again the Predacon wished that she could correct this child and say that she was not a song bird. But with her current limited vocabulary she was going to have to start small…

"N…name?" She questioned, happy to find that she was getting a bit better with this whole talking thing. The seven year old blinked once before realizing what this great creature was trying to ask.

"My name is Felicia. Felicia Johnson… and this is my little sister Chloe." She explained and moved the blanket so that the Gryphon could get a better look at her baby sister. The Predacon snorted loudly and shook her head.

"Bad names…" She stated bluntly. Why must all the human's names always sounds so strange and stupid? They really were a species without much taste in her opinion… that aside, she was very much aware of how tired these youngling's must be. After all they had been through a great deal tonight. "Sleep…"

"Will you be here when we wake up?" Felicia asked fearfully, as she did not want to wake up all alone in the strange cave, no matter how beautiful it was. She also still feared the man coming for her and her little sister… **(Completely unaware that he had been blown into oblivion…)** But she knew if this creature was there, she would frighten him away. She had saved them after all and even though she was really scary to look at… Felicia was not afraid of her…

The younglings request was such a strange and simple one that it really had the Predacon staring. This situation was so… odd… a human youngling and a sparkling; two weak creatures whose lives she could easily snuff out with a single wave of her claws; they were looking to her for protection. She did not **have to** give it to them… So why did she **want to**? Why did she **want to** help them?

_Perhaps it was because they were just as alone as she was…?_

After what felt like forever, the Predacon nodded to Felicia's question. Wordlessly assuring her that she would be there when she and Chloe woke up. Content with this, Felicia walked over to the great gryphon's side and laid against her. Careful not to hold her little sister too tightly or roll on her while she slept.

"Good night… Songbird." And just like that, the little girl fell into a deep dreamless sleep…

…_Songbird…_

_She could live with that…_

_And over the course of five long years, Felicia would gain a truly fitting name…_

…_Freefall…_

_And little Chloe grew quickly, seemingly a little more by the rise and set of the moon… _

_Thus that became her new name… _

…_Moonrise…_

**Yes that's it for now, again I'm sorry if this chapter seemed a little bit off but I do promise this that will get better as time goes on. Please note that reviews and creative criticism are always greatly appreciated! So please remember to read and review! ^_^**


	2. Changes

_**Chapter 1**_

_**Changes**_

…_Five years…_

…_five winters blanketed the mountains and forests with snow and ice…_

…_five summers filled the warm air with the scents of wildflowers…_

Looking back Songbird couldn't help but chuckle slightly to herself as she remembered the times, both the good and the bad. In the beginning everything had been challenging since she had to adapt in order to properly care for two other living creatures that were not of her own species. Even though they both needed to be cared for, Felicia had tried very hard to take care of Chloe primarily by herself. But she didn't really know what she was doing as she was also very young. Not that Songbird had any more experience at it than Felicia, but she did try and found ways to steal what was needed for little one to survive. Her first attempts to obtain food for the baby, namely milk, had come in the form of her attacking and mutilating livestock… Literally ripping the udders from cows, and then crudely butchering the rest of the meat for Felicia to eat as well. At first it seemed like a win-win situation…

_However the first time she did this, she quickly learned to clean the blood off before presenting anything to either child…_

_Because neither of them stopped crying for the rest of that night…_

She later decided that it was just easier if she hid in the woods while Felicia went into a human store and the little girl nonchalantly stole what was needed to feed the baby. They very rarely got caught and if they did Felicia was fast enough to run away and then they would simply find a different store to steal from. Even though Songbird would have preferred to stay in her own territory rather than venture so close to the human settlements... But as time went on things became easier and Chloe grew bigger every day under the gryphons' careful and watchful optics. But the name Chloe had never quite sat well with Songbird; here was a child that she was protecting and caring for… and if she was to truly care for this little one she needed to protect it from everything, including a bad name. So she picked one out that was not only pleasing but represented the little girl whom she was growing so very fond of. She named her Moonrise, for she seemed to grow under the calm silvery light of the moon. Felicia immediately loved her little sister's new name and asked her mother for a new one as well.

_Mother…_

That had been the first time Felicia had called her that and at first Songbird didn't know how to react… Although within seconds it brought an immense feeling of joy and happiness to her spark and from that moment on she was happy to accept the title. Although she did not give Felicia a new name right away, she would find her a more fitting name but it would take a little bit more time. As they had only been together for several months and naming a sparkling was easier than naming a youngling who was a little more grown up. But as that first winter turned to spring and little Moonrise became more and more capable of toddling around… Songbird felt better about having the two children situating themselves on her back when she went to fly rather than always carrying them in her claws. Perhaps it was an act of fate, or perhaps she really didn't really think it through, but during one of the first times that the children were holding onto her back she may have been flying a little bit too fast… and this resulted in Felicia and Moonrise losing their grip and thus were ripped off by the speeding winds. Songbird had immediately panicked but still managed to avert her course and catch her falling sparklings.

At first she felt terrible about it, how could she have done something so stupid? How could she have almost killed her precious children? But before she could give voice to these thoughts with apologies; imagine her surprise when Felicia started laughing wildly from her position within the sharp claws that had just caught her and her sister mid fall. She looked up at Songbird, eyes wide with joy and asked if it was possible that she could do that again?

_It was those words that earned her a new name…_

…_Freefall…_

Of course Songbird had far more memories than just that, but the time of looking back was short as she pulled herself out of reminiscing and then cast her blue optics over the two small forms that were curled up on sleeping mats next to the fire pit and were just now starting to rouse themselves from a night of peaceful slumber.

Over the course of five years both children had grown up quite a bit, especially Freefall. The twelve year old girl was now visibly stronger and more capable than other individuals her age. She was taller and her thin body was now hard with muscle and did not have so much as an ounce of fat, the direct result of the lifestyle she had been living these past few years. Her deep chocolate brown hair was extremely messy and unkempt, as well as drastically uneven since whenever it got too long Songbird would cut it… unfortunately she always had a very hard time making it even. Her blue eyes were striking, a deep rich ocean blue that could be seen clearly shining against her pale porcelain skin. As to be expected the clothing she wore was unconventional; she wore a sleeveless shirt that was made from animal skin while her pants were a pair of tattered jeans that she'd found somewhere and were ripped off just a little bit below the knees. She also wore a white polar bear skin cloak that covered most of her back and concealed her right arm as well as the right part of her chest. The palms of her hands were bound with a few straps of animal skin which gave her the appearance of wearing fingerless gloves and her feet were bare. One of the more interesting things she had was a brown animal skin strap that went from her right shoulder to her left hip, and attached to this strap were three razor-sharp daggers made from animal bone and right next to her was a very large heavy looking spear that had also been crafted from bones.

…_it pretty much went without saying that Freefall had become quite the hunter and fighter in these last five years…_

Nevertheless Freefall had managed to wake herself up quicker than her sister and after taking a second to wipe the sleep from her eyes she stood up, cracked her back and then she walked over to where Moonrise was still sleeping and gently shook the younger girl awake.

It was clear that even the five year old had a body that was also strong for her age and when standing she managed to just come up to her older sisters hip. Moonrise was a beautiful child; like her sister she had extremely pale skin and blue eyes, only unlike Freefall whose eyes resembled the deep blue of the sea Moonrise's eyes were a lighter shade of turquoise with a faint tint of sea green around the pupil. Her hair was a shining gold but just as unkempt and uneven as Freefalls was… She wore an animal skin tunic and pants, both were rather big on her but that was most likely due to the fact that these clothes were hand me downs from her sister. Around her neck glittered a handmade necklace with various sized energon crystals woven into it and her feet were also bare.

Moonrise grumbled a bit upon being woke up and even more so when Freefall smoothed down her messy hair. However her expression changed completely when she looked up at Songbird and she smiled a warm joyful smile.

"Good morning mama!" She said happily bounding over to the massive Predacon. Songbird merely chuckled and began to gently pet the small child's head with one of her talons.

"Good morning my sweetsparks, how did you both sleep?"

"Good." The girls answered in union just as Songbird stood up and began walking towards the entrance of her lair, being closely followed by her adopted daughters.

"Would you two like to join me on today's hunt or do you have plans?" She asked once the three of them stood directly outside of the cave. The mid-summer sun was already shining and a warm wind gently blew bringing with it the various scents from the surrounding forest; the smell of the trees, the flowers and the animals that called this area home. The light from the sun also exposed something that had been somewhat concealed in the cave; Songbird had what appeared to be a large satchel on her back. It was rather well made from various kinds of animal skins and hides although what it actually contained remained a mystery for the moment.

"Actually I was thinking that we could head over to the eastern woods, since all of the berries in that area should be ripe about now." Freefall explained. Of course Songbird mentally kicked herself, she should've known… the wild berries that grew on her lands were among the girl's favorite foods and since they only had a limited growing season Freefall and Moonrise didn't get to eat them as often as they would have liked. So it was to be expected that they would want to go off by themselves and forage for their desired treat.

"Alright then; if that's the case I will see you both at sunset... do either of you want anything particular for dinner?" No sooner did these words leave her mouth, Moonrise suddenly started bouncing up and down.

"Seal! Seal! Can we have seal? Please mama?!" The energetic child squeaked as she requested what was apparently her favorite food, Freefall however just rolled her eyes at her sister.

"Moony we just had fresh seal four days ago, let's have something different!"

"You want a different kind of seal?"

"No that wouldn't make a difference since seals all taste the same…"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Sweetsparks…" Songbird said firmly, deciding to interrupt before this little debate got out of hand. "I think I know of something that will please you both so don't argue. And if you are going to the eastern woods, stay together and be careful… and avoid the roads." She added that last part quickly having almost forgotten to mention it, lately there seemed to be fewer and fewer humans brave enough to trespass on her land these days. Since so many people would come back raving about some sort of monster while others wouldn't come back at all, local authorities have no choice but to deem area off-limits. It was something that Songbird was rather happy about… but still it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Don't worry about us mother; if we run into any intruders I'll just slice 'em up!" Freefall declared as she effortlessly swung that heavy spear around like a baton, a small but deadly testament as to what she was capable of doing to an opponent.

"I'm sure that you will, but remember Freefall sometimes it is better to be the shield rather than the sword. If you find yourselves in danger, remember that you need to protect your little sister." It brought Songbird a great deal of pride to know how strong her daughter was, but she was even more proud of how Freefall carefully watched over her sibling. She did not need to be reminded to do so, but as the girl's mother she felt inclined to say it anyway.

"Alright mom." Freefall muttered, like all children she didn't particularly like being reminded to do things that she already knew. Still, her expression became lighter as a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Tonight after dinner can we go falling?" The child asked hopefully. What she meant by _'falling'_ was their equivalent of skydiving… Where Songbird would fly them up to an incredible height and they would jump off of her back and freefall down from the heavens, always to be caught by their mother just before it was too late. This was Freefall's favorite activity above all others.

"I see no reason why not." The gryphon Predacon chuckled. "Run along then my sweetsparks, I will see you at sunset." And with that Freefall took a hold of Moonrise's hand before they both started to head off into the woods.

"See you at sunset!" Freefall responded momentarily taking her attention off of her little sister.

"Bye-bye mommy!" Moonrise also called back to her mother… before seeing an opportunity and escaping from her older sister's grasp and running as fast as she could to the forest, closely followed by Freefall was now yelling something along the lines of: _'Wait! Get back here you little imp!'_ Songbird just laughed and shook her head as she began to spread her wings and prepared to take flight… when all of a sudden a thought occurred to her and rather than flying off, she reached up and pulled something out of her bag. Curiously the item that she had taken out was what appeared to be a large deck of cards that were made of metal… It was something that she had obviously made herself. Something that she had apparently invested quite a bit of time and effort to make, since each of the cards were proportionate to her size and were also very intricately detailed. But what these cards really were was something that most would find particularly odd…

_It was a deck of Tarot cards…_

Songbird was not entirely blind to human's technology, nor was she oblivious to the world that existed outside of her domain. She had found a way to tap into the internet which made finding and gathering information easy and she had grown rather fond of reading through the humans archives… She loved to tell her children stories that she'd come across. The happier children's tales such as Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella for Moonrise, while Freefall held a preference for more exciting stories… some of her favorites being about the gladiators who had fought bravely in the Roman Coliseum. But Songbird herself held the stories of Camelot, Merlin and King Arthur's Court particularly close to her spark and she grew curious about the human's concepts of magic and divination. Enough to spend several weeks crafting this very deck of tarot cards. She already placed a great deal of belief in fate… for her own had been changed right when she had been at the very brink of death. And over the years she had become rather skilled at reading these cards.

At the moment Songbird was merely curious about how this day was might go. No matter how much talent one had for fortune telling, it was far from being an exact science. Personally, Songbird found that the past was easy to read and she was rarely wrong since the events that happened were permanently woven into times eternal tapestry and could not be rewritten, the present was always at a crossroads and could be obscured and tricky to decipher unless the card readers eye was well trained, but the future was eternally veiled in mist and could never be truly read… but it was not impossible to see the shadows of what may yet come. The future that could be made or unmade depending on the choices of the present… So Songbird drew a card, seeking to see the shadows of the future that loomed over this day.

The card she drew was The Tower, which was an ominous symbol at best. It represented that bad things would be likely to occur, accompanied by conflict and the disruption of life… Ultimately it was a symbol that change was on the horizon.

While it was definitely not what Songbird had been hoping to see… it didn't really make her too nervous, since her adopted children were the proof that not all change was unwanted. Although she couldn't help but think that maybe she should not take too long on her hunt today… just in case… So with that she put her cards away then spread her massive wings and took to the air without giving anything another thought.

…_little did Songbird know that the changes that were about to occur would complete turn her world upside down…_

* * *

_A lot of changes had happened at the Autobot base in these last five years as well…_

Some were good, some were bad… or at least that's how it was in Miko's opinion anyway. The energetic teenager had grown up to now be an energetic twenty year old. And while other things may have changed Miko was proud to declare that she hadn't changed at all… with the only exception being that she was now taller and her hair was somewhat longer... but other than that she was still the same person she always had been, after all she had always been proud of the person she was… Even if she was still yet to learn how to think things through…

The kids were now attending colleges, even Raf who managed to skip a few grades and graduate early. Unsurprisingly he had also obtained a full scholarship and was currently studying to be a scientist. Miko had absolutely no doubt in her mind that he would succeed because that was just the kind of person he was... Jack was also at college albeit for something completely different. The eldest boy was currently enrolled in various mechanics courses and he was also taking a few nursing classes on the side, undoubtedly due to his mother's persuasion. It will be noted that at this point Agent Fowler had married June Darby and become Jack's stepfather... at this point the two got along reasonably well all things considered. And as for Miko she was the only one who was a bit more undecided in where she was going in life. Currently she was taking basic college classes as well as several courses on photography, those being more keyed towards her interests. But other than that she was probably having the hardest time deciding what she really wanted to do. Especially considering she would rather spend all of her time at the Autobot base with Bulkhead, Wheeljack and the newest members of Team Prime.

_A pair of sparklings…_

Well actually at this point they weren't sparklings anymore. Four years ago during a rather routine mission to check on a supposed energon source, naturally one thing led to another and the kids had gotten separated from their Autobot partners and come across a horrifying sight. Tied together and left all by themselves were a pair of sparklings just slightly older than newborns. Hell, they were only a little bit bigger than Raf at the time… The two had been tightly bound and each had one of their legs broken, no doubt prevent them from escaping. But by far the worst part of this whole thing was that the two were strapped to a bomb; a big one at that. Miko and Jack had been the first ones to react, darting forward in seeing if there was any way to free the injured sparklings while Raf examined the device that they were strapped to… He quickly determined that the bomb was set to respond to some type of signal; and taking a shot in the dark he guessed that the signal would be if an Autobot got into the proximity of the device… Which was undoubtedly something nasty that had been cooked up by Shockwave; but it had been a brilliant play if one was to think about it… the two sparklings were wailing miserably in a mix of agony and fear, their cries would have undoubtedly attracted any Autobots that had been nearby and when they went to investigate… **Boom!**

But leave it to the Decepticons to overlook the human members of Team Prime, as Raf managed to deactivate the bomb thus allowing the sparklings to be safely extracted from the area. It was Optimus's idea to then detonate the said bomb, in order to fool the Decpticons into thinking that the sparklings were dead… Which was easy enough to do and afterwards once the sparklings legs were repaired by Ratchet, it left Team Prime with two tiny new members. Two siblings, a femme and a mech.

_And they were loved._

They named the mech Tripwire, or more appropriately Bulkhead named him Tripwire. Even at his young age it was somewhat obvious that he was going to be a large and powerful mech when he fully matured. His color scheme was primarily a deep ruby red while his secondary color was a rich silver. His face was white and as helm was a slightly darker shade of red than the rest of his body and had three prominent spikes on it, one in the center and two on the sides, the two on the sides being bigger and sweeping back over his head. His large optics were primarily black but were held shining gold orbs within them… Personality wise Tripwire was a little spitfire! He was energetic and fun-loving although he had his times were he could be really rather shy. Right from the moment he was found, Bulkhead and Wheeljack had taken a particular shine to him and it was those two **(Along with Miko)** who had primarily raised him. This may have not been so good in some cases since he may have picked up from Miko a habit of not thinking things through and the two Wrecker's habits of breaking things…

The femme was an entirely different story; she was named Paradox and unlike her brother she was quieter and more secretive. Her primary color was a beautiful shade of sapphire and her secondary color was a stunning white. Much like her brother she had three horns upon her helm only in this case it was reversed, with her center horn being larger than the two on the sides and they were also much _sharper_ than her brothers and her optics were also a deep solid gold. As the case was with most femme's it appeared that she was naturally going to be smaller, but her rate of growth suggested that she may very well be taller than Arcee when she was fully grown. When she was younger she lived up to her name, since she seemed to be very clingy and yet in spite of this she didn't seem to want to be held by any of the Autobots! No one quite knew what was going on with her until Ratchet theorized that she wanted to be held by a particular someone… more than likely one of her real parents. She must've bonded with them more so than her sibling and thus as much as a sparkling could reason, she only wanted to be held by that individual. Quite a sparkbreaking situation since it was an accepted fact that whoever her Carrier and Sire were they had more than likely been killed by the Cons… Although as time passed, Paradox seemed to bond a bit more to Ratchet and started helping him out in the med bay; she even slept in there rather than with Tripwire in their designated room.

_Although it was still hilarious the first time she called Ratchet grandpa…_

Other than that both sparklings grew quite close to Bumblebee and Smokescreen and naturally Optimus. Arcee and Paradox had a strong sister like relationship, while Tripwire tended to regularly get into some trouble with Smokescreen, usually as the older mech's little accomplice… However both sparklings did **NOT** like Ultra Magnus. No surprise there really, since Magnus's personality was a big put off to children no matter what the race. Of course Tripwire was obviously influenced more so by Wheeljack's obvious dislike of Magnus as well.

Putting all of that aside Miko refocused her attention to the situation at hand, namely watching Tripwire wrestle with Wheeljack just outside of the Autobot base. At this point in time both sparklings were more the equivalent of ten year olds. Height wise the two were around the same height currently coming up to Arcee's waist and it shouldn't have surprised anyone, but they liked to play… all the time.

"You're going to be one strong Wrecker someday Tripwire." Wheeljack chuckled as he took another playful punch to the chassis from the young mech, noting how strong it actually was, not enough to cause injury but still in a few years this kid was gonna be a force to be reckoned with!

"You really think so?" Tripwire asked, his large optics shining brightly as latched onto Wheeljack's neck as the older mech stood up, letting him dangle for moment before picking him up.

"It's obvious Trip! You're gonna be one of the strongest bots ever!" Miko injected, taking particular pleasure in watching how Tripwire's face just lit up with joy from the complement… Damn… her baby bot was growing up too quickly… Of course Tripwire's smile faded somewhat when he took notice of Ultra Magnus approaching this little scene.

"I've been looking for you Wheeljack." The ever uptight mech grumbled coldly, he was even more irritable than usual since his hand had been destroyed by Predaking only three months ago and he was still not allowed to go on missions. Not to mention that he had never once understood what was so entertaining about playing with a sparkling. "Optimus wants everyone inside for a meeting… Now."

_Tripwire and Wheeljack responded to Magnus by both sticking their tongues out at him…_

_Wheeljack had to make a conscious effort to do something other than swear at his commanding officer ever since Tripwire called Magnus a fragger to his face…_

Miko burst out laughing at the surprised and irritated look on Magnus his face and watched as he stormed back into the base angrily muttering something about a lack of respect under his breath. Nevertheless she and Wheeljack walked inside where he put down Tripwire and they walked over to where the rest of the Team Prime was already assembled with the exception of Smokescreen who had been injured in their last confrontation with the cons and was currently recharging in the med bay, and Jack, who had classes today and thus Arcee wasn't there since she was still his primary means of transportation. Miko could see that Raf was busy typing something into his laptop and talking to Optimus, Bumblebee and Bulkhead about something that was currently displayed on the large screen in the center of the room. From what she could see it was an aerial view of... Alaska?

"What's up?" Miko chirped as she walked over to Bulkhead, more than ready to get this party started.

"Our scans have just picked up a high energon concentration coming from this area here." Optimus explained gesturing to a particular point on the screen. "Judging by the readings, it's a pretty rich vein."

"Definitely something we don't want the Cons to get their hands on." She chuckled rubbing her hands together and getting that all-too-familiar glint in her eye. "So when do we head out?"

"Soon… we were just gathering some information on the area we're heading to. Since it seems to be a pretty isolated area." Bulkhead explained as he reached down and carefully picked up Miko.

"Not to mention that were not the only ones who are doing the scans, I'd bet that the Cons are probably noticing these readings as well." Raf muttered more to himself than anyone else. But then he looked up at Optimus, his eyes serious and somewhat worried. "You should know that this area has a really bad reputation, apparently a lot of people have gone missing around there."

"Meh, don't worry about it Raf, we can handle whatever is thrown our way." Miko interrupted, trying to be reassuring but only earning an agitated glare from the far more cautious boy.

"It never hurts to know what you're getting yourself into." He explained.

"Are you heading to up to Alaska?" The voice of Paradox drew everyone's attention over to the small femme no one had noticed enter the room and currently stood quietly next to Ratchet. "Can I come?"

"Yeah me too! I want to come and beat up some Decepticons!" Tripwire exclaimed as he suddenly ran over and looked up at Bulkhead expectedly.

"Sorry, not today." Bulkhead said as he reached down with his free hand and patted Tripwire's head. "You're too young to be fighting the Cons." It was sad to see the enthusiasm leave the youngling's face, but still it was for his own good. Paradox on the other hand just sighed and shook her head.

"I didn't actually want to fight. I just wanted to see the northern lights… you know the Aurora Borealis?" She explained calmly looking up at all the present adults.

"Maybe after the mission. Once everything is safe; I'll take you there myself." Ratchet said with a smile as he placed a hand on the young femme's shoulder. It was undeniable, the old medic had become very fond of Paradox and had even grown to not mind it when she called him grandpa.

"That would be lovely." Paradox said with a quick nod before walking over to her brother and grabbing him by his arm and dragging him off somewhere to play and also prevent him from trying to sneak through the ground bridge which he had a habit of doing.

"Can we go now?" Miko practically begged at this point, as she was completely starved for an adventure. Ten page history paper due in three days be damned, she was going to fight Decepticons and find energon in Alaska!

Sure enough Ratchet then began setting the basic coordinates for the ground bridge and Bulkhead carefully put down Miko and transformed; but just as Miko was about to climb in she paused and turned her attention towards Raf who was just about to get into Bumblebee.

"Hey Raf, does this place were going have a name?"

The seventeen year old paused and turned to look at Miko before adjusting his glasses slightly. "Actually yeah… A lot of the people who've gone into the area and actually made it back tell stories that there's some kind of hideous winged creature living in the woods that kills anything that trespasses."

"No need to give me a lesson in folklore, I have a big enough history research paper due in a few days… So just spill what do people call it?"

"First off history and folklore aren't exactly the same topic. As for what the locals call the area… well…"

"Well?" Miko pressed.

"They call it _The Gryphon's Keep_..."

**Alright that's it for this chapter! I really hope that I'm keeping everybody in character and not making anyone to OOC… As always please remember to Read and Review!**


	3. Encounters

**Well I saw Predacon's Rising and apparently gryphon Predacon's are canon! It was actually kind of fun to see! Although I should take this moment to point out that Songbird does not entirely resemble the gryphon Predacon from the movie. She's a lot thinner and sleeker, and obviously her primary color scheme is black and blue… Just thought I'd point that out. I'd also like to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed the story so far it really makes me feel good about writing this!**

**As for Neon, go right ahead! I'd love to see some more Predaking OC stories! And gryphon Predacons are canon now so no need to ask! ^_^ **

_**Chapter 2**_

_**Encounters**_

_The drive through the back roads of the Gryphon's Keep were turning out to be rather uneventful…_

Upon arriving at their destination, the team had split into two groups. Miko, Wheeljack and Bulkhead had gone in one direction while Optimus, Bumblebee and Raf headed off in another. And although the area was nothing short of gorgeous, Miko was still hoping for something interesting or exciting to happen… preferably sooner rather than later.

"Just saw another Moose…" She commented dryly and continued to look out the window; inwardly admiring the beautiful landscape and the vast array of wildlife that didn't seem afraid of venturing into the road at a moment's notice. Clearly due to the lack of traffic through this area, the local animals had no fear of getting run over. Starting to feel a bit frustrated, Miko sighed loudly and began messing with Bulkhead's radio out of boredom… and yet after a moment or two Miko happened upon a song that both she and Bulky liked and quickly cranked up the volume… although amidst getting lost in the upbeat rhythm it was pure luck that Miko just so happened to glance out the window and out of habit she said whatever she saw. "Little girl…"

_It took a full ten seconds for what Miko just said to really register in her own mind…_

And Bulkhead's as well, seeing is how he had also been distracted by the loud music and had not noticed the tiny human child walking into the middle of the road. Let alone the fact that upon hearing the sounds of approaching vehicles she stopped like a deer in the headlights and watched them steadily get closer and closer… Bulkhead immediately slammed on the brakes as did Wheeljack who had been driving right alongside his friend and unsurprisingly both bots started to lose control and skid, causing Bulkhead to bump into Wheeljack and nearly flipped the smaller Wrecker. And yet through some bizarre and lucky twist of fate they both managed to come to a screeching halt less than a foot from the little girl.

"Ok, that… that was most definitely **NOT** cool." Miko grunted as she opened the door and fell out of Bulkhead, landing face first on the dirt road. But within seconds she was on her feet and brushing herself off… and then focused her attention on the girl who was currently looking at her and the two bots with large, innocent, curious and oddly fearless blue eyes. In one arm she held a few dozen freshly picked berries mostly blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and a few others that Miko couldn't immediately identify and every couple of seconds she'd pop another one into her mouth while never taking her eyes off of the group before her.

"Hey little girl, you know you shouldn't be out in the road! You could've gotten killed!" Miko said in an aggravated tone as she approached the child who merely blinked those large eyes up at her and ate another berry. Of course once she was close enough Miko was actually able to see what this kid really looked like and knew instantly that it was not normal... She looked like she had been raised out in the woods; but that just didn't happen… not nowadays anyway. And although her appearance was undeniably strange, what stood out even more was the handmade necklace of energon crystals currently around her neck. "Wait a minute… where did you come from? And where did you find this energon?"

"I'm not really supposed to talk to strangers, especially not humans." Moonrise commented innocently before eating yet another berry. Although after a moment a look of worry crossed her face and she cast her gaze back towards the forest she had just come out of. "Oopps… Freefall's gonna be mad."

"Who's Freefall? And… wait… what do you mean you don't talk to humans? You are human!" Miko asked more than a little confused at the child's words. Although at this remark Moonrise suddenly looked irritated… or at least as irritated as any five year old could look.

"I am not!" She growled up at Miko before shoving all of the remaining berries into her mouth. "Humans are stupid…" If there was ever one thing that Moonrise was truly naïve about, it was her species. Since she had no memories about her human mother she assumed that Songbird was her real biological mother and that she and her sister were just young gryphons... even though Freefall had told her a dozen times that wasn't the case the five year old was convinced otherwise and couldn't be reasoned with.

"Oh really?" Miko responded suddenly getting really irritated at this little girl, so naturally she was losing her focus on the primary task of locating the energon and now focusing on having this argument with this kid… an indignant fight… an indignant fight that Bulkhead and Wheeljack couldn't stop because the only way to do that would mean talking or transforming in front of this mysterious little kid. "If you're not human, what are you?"

Moonrise suddenly blinked up at Miko with those big eyes of hers shining with innocence and immediately losing all of her anger that she'd only had for a few seconds prior. "I'm a gryphon of course! You probably can't tell 'cause my metal skin hasn't grown in yet!"

_Awkward… _

_Silence…_

"Metal skin? Gryphon? Mental note, don't eat the berries around here…" Miko shook her head and then realized that she had gotten off topic. "Look little girl, can you please tell me where you found-"

"Miko! Watch out!" Bulkhead yelled just as something rushed out of the forest and went for Miko with some sort of weapon! She was barely able to duck underneath a spear that was now where her head just been only a second prior.

When Freefall had noted that Moonrise had wandered off naturally she had gone looking for her, only the second she saw that her little sister was now talking to an intruder on their land she'd nearly had a heart attack! Immediately Freefall was filled with anger and fear for Moonrise's safety and she launched herself at this newcomer, nearly taking her head off with her spear! Miko managed to dodge the first attack but was not so lucky when Freefall spun around and slashed at her again, this time cutting a deep gash into her left arm! She didn't even have time to cry out before Freefall proceeded to slam the hilt of her spear into her chest, successfully knocking the wind right out of her and forcing her to the ground!

"Sister!" Moonrise squeaked, suddenly afraid upon seeing her normally calm older sister become so incredibly violent and enraged, not to mention also seeing and smelling the fresh blood now seeping out of Miko's arm. Again, due to her upbringing Moonrise was considerably more aware of sights and smells than other children her age and instinctively she would become afraid when in a confrontation blood was drawn.

Freefall then stood over Miko, feral anger burning clearly behind her blue eyes and wordlessly she raised her spear with the full intent of driving it straight through the young woman's beating heart; but just before she could do that Bulkhead and Wheeljack had no choice but to intervene and they transformed in front of the two children!

"Don't you even think about it kid!" Bulkhead growled menacingly. Freefall immediately backed up allowing Miko to slip out of range of that spear and stand in front of the two Wrecker's. "You all right Miko?"

"I'm fine Bulk, it's just a flesh wound." She muttered coldly, definitely not about to say how bad it was **really** hurting... The downside was that Bulkhead could already tell just because of the sheer amount of blood pouring out of her arm. He and Wheeljack proceeded to glare down at the younger now obviously terrified kids.

"Freefall are they… are they like Mama?" Moonrise whispered to her sister equally afraid and confused at what it was she was seeing. Freefall didn't answer, she just looked between the two large mechs and Miko before turning on her heel, grabbing Moonrise with her free hand and then the two of them proceeding to run as fast as they possibly could back into the woods from whence they came. Which was perfectly fine with Bulkhead since his primary concern was Miko's wellbeing… but Miko clearly had other plans and she also took off into the forest, intent on finding out just where that girl had found the energon!

"Miko wait!" Bulkhead started but sighed in annoyance when he realized that the girl wasn't going to be stopping and with each passing second she was gaining more and more of a head-start.

"This is the beginning of one long day…" Wheeljack grumbled, although he wasn't quite able to hide all of the amusement in his voice. "Come on, let's go get her before she gets hurt."

_And with that the two Wreckers followed their overzealous human into the forest…_

_Completely unaware of what other creature called this land home…_

_And who else was already within it… _

* * *

Songbird effortlessly flew over the vast lands that she considered her domain; her blue optics silently scanning the area in search of suitable prey. Earlier on she had told her girls that she knew of something that would satisfy both of their tastes and it was this particular animal that she was currently looking for. And after some time she finally found what it was that she had been seeking…

_Caribou…_

Or more commonly known as reindeer to most, this creature's meat was one of Freefalls favorites and since a few days prior Moony had already enjoyed her own favorite food of seal, it was only fair that Freefall have one of her own favorites as well. Not to mention that there was still some leftover seal meat dried and stored in a section of the cave that was used for the storage of excess food… **(Since it would have been foolish and wasteful to throw away whatever was not eaten in a single meal.)** Moony could always eat some of that along with her caribou if she so desired. Songbird silently landed atop a nearby cliff that overlooked the verdant hillside where the Caribou grazed; she had a particular tactic for hunting these beasts one that had never failed. First off she remained eerily silent as she carefully picked out which individual within the herd that she would target… Once her optics settled on one of the medium-sized members the gryphon Predacon suddenly let loose a hellish screech so loud that it echoed for miles and then leapt off the cliff and dove straight down into the herd causing all of the Caribou to immediately panic began to flee the area, but in the confusion Songbird extended her talons and grabbed onto her prey! Lifting it clean off the ground and into the air; Songbird carried the squirming beast higher into the sky where she then proceeded to stab straight through its heart with one of her razor sharp claws. The creature's death was instantaneous and painless… well, mostly painless anyway. Now all that was left to do was butcher the meat. She had a certain area of her land that she did this in, since it more often than not was a rather disgusting task and she didn't want the mess or the smell in her cave. But no sooner did she change direction in midflight did something capture her attention for a mere second…

_Before then proceeding to crash right into her with the force of a freight train… _

_For Songbird did not know that her screech had been heard by someone else…_

* * *

The Decepticons had also picked up the energon signal in the area and had dispatched Starscream along with a team of Vehicons and Eradicons to secure it. However, Predaking had wished to go along as he was all too eager to extract revenge for his fallen comrades on any Autobot he could get his servos on. Unfortunately for him he still had to take orders from that annoying, smart mouthed flyer… and no sooner did they reach the basic vicinity of where the energon had been detected did Starscream order him to go and scout out the surrounding area. Of course Predaking saw this for what it really was, and excuse to get rid of him… Which was fine with him, the more time the dragon Predacon spent around the seeker the more he wanted to rip the second in command's spark out. Besides, this way he was sure to be the first to encounter any Autobots that decided to come snooping for energon. The need for vengeance surged through him like a bolt of wicked lightning, but the longer he quietly flew through the skies over this lush wilderness the more he found his rage leaving him, gradually being replaced by the overwhelming feeling of loss and loneliness.

It hurt more than any words could ever express, just the knowing that he was the only one of his kind and there was no one else like him out there in the entire universe… But for a brief moment he'd not been alone, there would have been others like him! He would have had subordinates to command and fight alongside, companions to share victories large and small alike with… _a family_… but alas all of that was gone now and he was alone. At least until Megatron was victorious in this seemingly never-ending war and the Autobot slime were eradicated… then the warlord could live up to his promise and restore his race. But that did not appear to be happening anytime soon; so there he was flying high in the air... alone… Completely and utterly alone…

But at that moment, just when he felt as though he couldn't possibly feel any worse, that was when he heard it. A screech so loud that the heavens themselves seem to shake rattled through his audios and caused him to halt midflight and look around for the source of this sound. He couldn't understand why, but his primal instinct told him to find whatever it was that that had made that screech. He twisted and turned several times before he noticed something flying in the air quite a ways away from him, something that reflected blue whenever the sunlight struck it. Although he wasn't sure just what he was looking at Predaking immediately headed off in that direction, his optics straining to get a better look whatever it was that flew only a little ways ahead of him. But as he got closer his optics widened in his powerful spark nearly stopped beating…

_It was another Predacon…_

Of course right around same time he fully registered what he was seeing he also realized that he was still flying at breakneck speed and before he could stop himself he slammed full force into it and they both crashed to the ground.

_Well…_

_That was definitely __**NOT **__the best way to make a first impression…_

And when he hit the ground it seemed so much harder when coupled with the overall embarrassment of having just done something as stupid as that. He could hear the pained groans of the other Predacon as it untangled itself from him and all the trees that they had flattened with their fall. After a moment or two of making sure that he hadn't broken anything in the crash he looked up from his position lying on his back to truly see the other for the first time. Unfortunately the first thing he saw however was a glaring, angry gryphon Predacon with a dead and now mangled reindeer bleeding out on top of its head. Saying that it looked pissed might have been the understatement of the year as it reached up and removed the dead animal from its head and dropped to the ground with a disgustingly loud squelching sound. Realizing that he must look completely ridiculous, Predaking rolled over onto his feet and was just about to transform when the gryphon Predacon lashed out and swatted him across his face nearly breaking off one of his mandibles.

"That…" It said in a cold and obviously female voice. "was for crashing into me! And this," again she swatted him hard in the face knocking him over and leaving three nasty scratches from her talons on the side of his head. "is for trespassing in my domain! Now leave before I tear you in half!" At this she reared up and snarled at him, producing that same horrible screech he'd heard earlier. While this little display would have undoubtedly sent any other mech or femme running for the hills, Predaking was not ordinary and once he had taken a second to actually regain himself he stood up and flared out his wings and roared right back at her! While he was still very much surprised and confused at meeting another member of his species, there was no way in The Pit that he was going to let her talk to him like that! Quickly he transformed since unlike Songbird he was currently unable to speak in his beast form.

"You will not talk to me in such a manner!" He roared back… of course the second he had transformed Songbird had lost most of her aggression and was now staring at him in complete bewilderment. This was definitely a new one… here she was thinking that getting crashed into by a dragon was the weirdest thing that was going to happen today, this just took it up to a whole different level. After taking a second to calm down Predaking sighed and decided to try this again. "My apologies for crashing into you, but I had not expected to see another Predacon here. I believed that I was the only one currently in existence."

…_poke…_

"How did you get here? What is your designation?"

…_poke…_

"Are you alone or are there others with you out here?"

…_poke…_

"And for the love of Primus would you **Stop Poking Me!**" He snapped, having finally been fed up with being poked by one of the gryphon's sharp talons as she circled him. As requested she did stop although she did continue to stare at him and did not answer any of his questions. Instead opting to ask one of her own.

"What… are you?"

"I am a Predacon just like you." He explained a little confused to the fact that she didn't seem to know what she herself was. He then pointed to the Predacon symbol on his chest then gestured to the same symbol on Songbirds chest as well, only hers was a deep blue in color rather than orange or gold. "I… am Predaking. Now tell me, who are you?"

Songbird remained oddly quiet for some time before finally answering him. "Nice to meet you Predaking; I think I'm hallucinating!" She stated bluntly as she was now starting to question her own sanity. "Ugh, that does it! I'm not eating any more of that red energon… stuff tastes like scrap anyway." And with that she turned, grabbed up what was left of her kill and started walking away. Of course Predaking wasn't going to just let her leave without getting any of his answers and he quickly transformed and got in her way.

"Move." Songbird growled in annoyance, only to receive an angry hiss from the dragon barring her way. But before she could do anything else Predaking lunged forward and head butted her! Knocking her onto her back and then pinning her down with one claw. She blinked a few times and then groaned loudly as a realization dawned on her. "You're not a hallucination are you?"

"No, I'm not." He muttered as he once again transformed and looked down at the femme before him. "Now answer my question... Who are you?"

"My name is Songbird." She said coldly as she righted herself and once again and ignoring his apparent disdain at her choice of a name, she picked up the Caribou's carcass and looked it over. "I'm going to have to rinse the meat off before it can be cooked."

"You're going to eat… that?" He asked clearly more than a little disgusted at the thought. Songbird merely rolled her optics.

"No you moron I'm not going to eat it… the last time I tried to eat an organic's flesh I purged my tank." She explained before tossing the animal's corpse into the air and letting it land on her back. "Now it's been nice meeting you and all that but I really do have to be going now."

"Did you completely miss what I said earlier?" Predaking said as he once again got in her way. "Up until now I believed that I was the only Predacon in existence! How did you come to be and are there others like you? Please answer me!" Perhaps it was due to a slight change in his tone of voice, a small glimpse at the loneliness he was trying to hide actually made Songbird pause in her hasty attempt to leave the area. She was… familiar… with loneliness and hearing it in his voice suddenly made her realize that she was being rather rude. That… and something in the back of her processor was telling her to speak with him even if it was only to answer some of his questions before she continued on her way; since her sparkling's were not expecting her back until sunset and that was still a long time off.

"I can't answer that. The question of where I came from… I do not know where I was born, all I know is where I was _**reborn**_ and that is a story I'm not about to tell right now since you are a stranger to me." She explained calmly. "But as for your other question, if there are any others like either me or you… there are not. In fact you're the first individual somewhat _'Like Me'_ I have ever seen." After that a long and uncomfortable silence fell between the two. Since he had been doing most of the talking up till now it only seemed fair that Songbird input something at this point. "You called me a Predacon, somewhere in the back of my processor I knew that even though I've never heard the actual term before… are all Predacon's dragons and gryphons?"

"No... There is no set look for our kind, we may all look different but we are all still the same race." He muttered just as something clicked within his mind. "Why is it that you have not transformed?"

"You mean like what you did?" Songbird questioned, cocking her head to the side and looking at him strangely. "I can't do that."

"Yes you can; it really isn't hard I assure you. Transform and we can continue this conversation in a more civilized manner."

Songbird snorted and shook her head. "Sorry but I am not about to try something I severely doubt I can do. The last thing I need is to end up twisting my body into a knot that I can't get out of. As for talking in a civilized manner… does it really matter how I look? Last time I checked I'm acting **quite** civilized… because if I wasn't I'd have already ripped your head off."

"Fair enough." Predaking growled, again he wasn't pleased with the way Songbird was speaking to him but he'd let it go… for now. But that was when he suddenly recalled why he had even been out here in the first place. "You say this land is your territory? So you must know the location of the vein of energon that courses through one of the mountains?" It would be the crystalized icing on the energon cake if he was the one who located the energon for Megatron as well as bring Songbird with him back to the Nemesis… he could already imagine the look on Starscream's face.

"Of course I do, I have been living off of it for years." Her eyes suddenly flashed dangerously. "Is that why you are here? To steal my energon?"

"Admittedly the Decepticons and I were drawn to this area in search of this vein; but if this land is indeed your territory I'm sure that I can convince Lord Megatron to leave it be."

"Decepti- what? Wait… are you saying that there are more intruders in my domain?" Songbird growled.

"Um… well-"

"Frag!" She snapped, as all of the anger she had felt earlier on suddenly flooding through her with a newfound ferocity. As much as she wanted to shriek and rage and rip this Predaking to shreds she somehow managed to keep a hold of it… just as an uncomfortable and foreboding feeling started to creep its way into her spark. Suddenly forgetting all about her unwanted and now very unwelcome guest, Songbird reached inside of her satchel and pulled one of her tarot cards out. No sooner had she laid her optics upon the cards image did a thunderous explosion split through the air! The sound resounding with the same aura that she felt from the card and within an instant she spread her massive wings and took to the sky!

_Her prophetic abilities screaming that her children were in danger…_

**That's it for now I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I hope I kept everyone in character! And I promise that all of the action really starts in the next one! And as always please remember to Read and Review! ^_^**


	4. Destruction

_**Chapter 3**_

_**Destruction **_

_The girls believed that they were running for their lives…_

Freefall and Moonrise raced through the forest as fast as their legs could carry them; as not far behind them was Miko, who was quickly gaining on the two. Freefall did not need to look back in order to know this, she just tightened her grip on her little sisters hand and started sprinting all the faster… although it occurred to her that she could turn around and fight with the human trespasser and even though there was a decent chance that she could kill her, Freefall knew there was absolutely no way in hell she would be able to defeat the two giant robots that she had with her. It was extremely confusing to the young girl, since she was aware that her mother Songbird was a robotic gryphon… but in complete honesty she had never once expected to see anything even remotely similar to her. After all these years, a part of her had always wondered where Songbird had come from… a question that she had even asked a few times, only to receive the answer '_I was given life while falling from heaven.'_ Which had never really answered anything; it was one of the few times that Songbird had seemed eerie and cryptic to her adopted child.

Still, returning her attention to the current situation Freefall quickly figured out exactly what it was she had to do… and the first and foremost thing was to get back to their cave. Once inside, she and Moony could lose their pursuers amidst the various winding tunnels that honeycombed through and underneath the mountain. And once the intruders were lost and their mother returned home from her hunt… well… it pretty much went without saying how the rest of this plan would go. The fools would die in a blinding flash of blue lighting… Now at this point they were almost to the cave's main entrance, it only being a little further ahead. Perhaps they could simply lose them just by reaching the cave itself, after all the opening was difficult to find especially in recent years since the surrounding foliage had overgrown to the point of making it practically invisible. But no sooner had the two siblings reached the base of the mountain did they come to a screeching halt as Freefall found her plan suddenly going up in smoke.

_For standing in front of the cave was none other than Starscream…_

By following the energon's signal, Starscream and his squadron had managed to locate the concealed entrance to the cavern that Freefall, Moonrise and Songbird called their home and seeing is how the opening to the said cave was not large enough to give them easy enough access… Starscream had just ordered that the entire side of the mountain to be blown open! So before either of the girls could react, a thunderous explosion split through the sky and caused the ground to shake! Freefall quickly used her body to shield her sister but thankfully the explosion didn't send any of the debris that was large enough to threaten their lives at them… although the only reason for this was because of sheer dumb luck. From his position standing only a little ways away from Freefall and Moonrise, Starscream could not help but smirk triumphantly as he observed his handiwork. Now there was a proper entrance to the Decepticons newest energon mine. Something that he had found without any help from the snarling beast that dared to think itself his equal… Although his attention was distracted from this latest acquisition when Moonrise suddenly screamed at the sight of what had just occurred.

"The cave! It's all blown up! Freefall what if mama was in there?!" The five year old screeched in fear at her older sister who was also looking on in sheer horror since Starscream had just ruined most of the caves main chamber. Although she wanted to scream as well, Freefall forced herself to remain quiet in spite of her growing anger at the fact she had just watched her home get destroyed and couldn't do anything about it! But her attention became focused on Starscream when he suddenly grinned darkly down at them.

"Well, well, well what do we have here? Two tiny little humans undoubtedly trying to get in the way." He sneered as he then proceeded to loom over the two kids. "Hmmm, I haven't seen you before, did the Autobots get some new pets?" And with a quick swipe of his clawed hand Starscream grabbed up Freefall, although he had been intending to grab both of the children, Moonrise had somehow slipped from between his fingers. Imagine his surprise however to see Freefall not so much afraid as she was raging and snarling and squirming trying to fight her way out from his grasp. Conveniently it was right then that Miko along with Bulkhead and Wheeljack had managed to catch up, only to be greeted by the sight of Starscream holding the elder girl.

"Put the kid down Con!" Wheeljack warned as he quickly drew his swords and his face plate quickly clicked into place.

"Now why would I do that?" The Seeker taunted cruelly, finding it quite amusing now that he had the upper hand. Since he knew that the Autobots would not dare attack him while he was holding the puny little organic. However, said puny little organic suddenly unsheathed one of her bone daggers and quickly stabbed it into the seam of one of his sharp fingers instantly cutting through some wires and drawing his energon. The Seeker yelped in surprise and nearly dropped Freefall, but with a hiss he shifted her into his other hand. Now being careful to hold her even tighter and in such a way that she couldn't stab him again. "Why you little-"

"You let my sister go right now!" Moonrise yelled up at Starscream, her small eyes blazing with anger. She could be quite fearless at times… or quite foolish. "Or else!"

"Or else?" Starscream repeated icily as he heavily considered crushing this tiny human under his heel. "Or else what you little worm?"

"Let my sister go or else our mama will make you sorry!" She in a serious tone… Now at this Starscream burst out laughing and unintentionally tightened his grip on Freefall making it all the more difficult for her to breathe.

"Oh I'm so scared! Do you really think that your pathetic Carrier can do anything against me?" He mocked coldly, finding it funny just how pathetic and naïve these little creatures could be.

"You haven't met our mother…" Freefall hissed wickedly from her position in Starscream's hand. "She could rip you apart with a single swipe of her claws! You're nothing compared to her you robotic high-heeled freak!" She snapped, successfully pissing Starscream off all the more and just as he was about to crush the girl for her insolence, something suddenly occurred to him… did she just say her mother had claws? Humans didn't have claws…

Ironically this thought not only registered with him but with Miko, Bulkhead, and Wheeljack at the exact same time. It was also at this very moment that Miko heard something strange… It sounded like a faint whistling that was gradually getting louder and louder and becoming less like a whistle and more like a screech. Right when it seemed that it couldn't get any louder Miko and the two Wreckers looked up…

_Just in time to watch as Songbird barreled into Starscream full force…_

At first the sheer force of the blow left the Seeker stunned senseless and not entirely sure what the frag had just happened. But as he quickly came around and felt a massive claw pinning him down, he looked up… it was as though his very worst nightmare come true! There was another Predacon! Another snarling, raging beast that looked like it was about ready to kill him! Consumed with fear he dropped his captive and brought both of his hands up to shield himself. It took Freefall a few long moments to regain her lost breath but afterwards she turned back to look at Starscream and smiled wickedly.

"Hehehe… Mr. Freak, meet our mother!" She snarled with incredible ferocity.

"M-M-Mother?!" Starscream indignantly squeaked as Songbird got right in his face and screeched loudly. As a reflex she brought one of her massive wings down to the ground thus allowing Freefall to climb up, and after a minute she was joined by her little sister as Moonrise raced over and also hopped onto her mother's back. Once her daughters were safely clinging to her, Songbird took a moment to observe the devastation of her home… not to mention the dozen or so completely petrified Eradicons and Vehicons!

"What… have… you… **DONE?!**" Songbird roared wrathfully at Starscream, successfully making him emit yet another terrified high-pitched squeal. She flexed and adjusted the claw that was currently pinning him down, digging her talons into his frame and carving open three deep wounds that immediately made him bleed energon. Fortunately for Starscream these wounds were by no means fatal, but they were probably the least of his worries at this particular moment. Especially since Songbird was now growling at him and lifting up her other claw and fanning out her three razor-sharp talons to undoubtedly strike a killing blow… But as luck would have it one of the Vehicons chose that particular moment to open fire on Songbird. And while this didn't actually harm her, it did stun her just long enough for Starscream to wiggle his way out from under her claws.

"All of you open fire! Attack! Attack! Blow it to The Pit!" He screamed before seizing this opportune moment to transform and take off, intent on putting as much distance between himself and this new Predacon menace as possible! All while inwardly wondering why Primus seemed to have it out for him?! Unfortunately this was a very bad move, since after a second or so Songbird loosed a blast of lightning at the fleeing Seeker and promptly shot him right out of the sky. She then turned her attention back to the Vehicons that were still firing their weapons at her, but it was right when one of the blasts only narrowly missed hitting little Moonrise that Songbird flew into a destructive rage and charged at her attackers.

The Vehicons didn't have a chance… Songbird tore through them as though they were made of paper! Songbird grabbed onto the first one and bit its head right off! She then immediately reared up onto her hind legs and used her talons to cut three more in half, just before she loosed a lightning blast at several of the others which in turn caused a massive explosion since that particular lot had been standing right in front of a cluster of energon crystals… But Songbird wasn't fazed at all. She then reared up once again, only this time she flared out her massive wings and somehow seemed to draw in the smoke and burning light that was coming from the energon-fueled fire and it made her appearance seem all the more hellish! She shrieked again, only this time the sound was so loud that it nearly caused Miko's eardrums to rupture! But it did the trick and sent all of the remaining Vehicons running for the hills; Songbird let them flee… as she began trying to calm her rage. But just as she started to feel some sort of a calm begin to settle over her, something suddenly registered within her processor and she set her blue optics upon the team of Wreckers who had been watching from nearby, having been to shocked to intervene… not that they would have anyway since this situation seemed to be reversed; the last time they checked the Predacons were supposed to be on the Decepticons side so why was this new Predacon ripping apart its own allies? Not only that, but why the frag were those two girls refering to it as their mother?!

Somewhere in the back of Songbirds processor an old, corrupted memory began to rise up to the surface. It was a memory of a particular energon scent… something that she at one point in her long forgotten past had been hunting_… or had been told to hunt…_

The memory suddenly hit her hard; bringing with it a vision of foggy shapes and shadows that somehow meant something and nothing at the same time. It made Songbird pause, her unblinking optics locked onto her targets while a storm of shattered memory files tried to reconstruct themselves within her processor. Since everything had gone so eerily still, Wheeljack saw an opportunity that he could not afford to pass up… He carefully nudged Bulkhead and made a slight motion with his head indicating for them to get the frag out of there before the Predacon decided to use them as its next chew toys. Bulkhead nodded and quickly picked up Miko and then they began backing away very… very… slowly…

_Of course it was then that Songbird charged at them…_

"Oh scrap!" All three of them exclaimed at the same time and what original had been a slow, quiet retreat quickly became a rather humorous fast-paced escape attempt that was made all the more terrifying due to the Predacon's enraged shrieks and the frequent lightning blasts. Since Songbird was far faster than either of the Wreckers and it did not take long before she had caught up to them and with a single fluid motion she slammed her head hard into Bulkhead and sent him flying right into Wheeljack! Fortunately the impact did not hurt Miko, but that was quickly becoming irrelevant since Songbird reared up and slammed her talons onto both bots pinning them to the ground, one under each claw… Songbird brought her face down to their level and they could feel the static energy that hummed in the very air that surrounded her.

"Leave!" She commanded, her voice dripping with venom and ire. "I will give you one chance and only one! You and yours will leave my land and never return! But if you do I swear on the Tapestry of Fate that I will tear you limb from limb!" And with that Songbird released her grip on them before turning around, spreading her wings and taking to the air. Leaving two very shocked Autobot's and Miko wondering just how the hell they were supposed to explain _this_ mess to Optimus!

* * *

"Why did you let them go?!" Freefall muttered darkly as Songbird landed amongst the rubble that had once been the central chamber of their cave.

"Because we have bigger problems to deal with than them…" Songbird explained amidst probably the worst processor ache she ever had. This whole day had been a complete disaster and now as she looked at her decimated lair an overwhelming feeling of sorrow and resentment washed over her like a tidal wave. "We're going to have to find a new home; since it is safe to assume that most of the tunnels collapsed when they blew the main chamber open."

"Everything will be okay." Moonrise said softly as a small smile slowly spread its way across her young face, although her words got her somewhat confused looks from both her sister and mother figure. "We'll be alright as long as we're together; I just know it." Oh Moonrise, so full of innocence and childish naivety, although she was undoubtedly oblivious to the way the world really worked Songbird often found that her youngest child's faith was rarely misplaced… still just hearing her daughters words made Songbird smile warmly. A sentiment that was shared by Freefall who patted her little sisters' head; even if she was considerably wiser to the reality of things she found herself unable to dispute the younger girl's logic.

"Well put Moonrise… I don't think I could've phrased it better myself. Still, let us salvage what we can fro-" But no sooner had she extended her wing to let her children slide off of her back was there a sudden rush of wind and a echoing roar as Predaking swiftly landed nearby. His sudden appearance totally stunned Moonrise and Freefall… and caused Songbirds hypothetical hackles to raise in utter rage.

"D-Dragon?!" Freefall stuttered, some part of her not believing what she was seeing! What the hell was with this day?! It quite literally kept getting worse every second! Although a lot of Freefall was beginning to have a bit of a mental breakdown; Moonrise was following an entirely different trail of thought altogether…

"…can I pet him?" She whispered hopefully; and thankfully no one heard that… Still the hulking dragon approached before quickly transforming and looking around at the obvious devastation to what had once been the femme Predacon's home.

"This is a… most unfortunate turn of events." Predaking muttered under his breath; even though he would not dare admit it out loud… he was rather glad her home was now thoroughly leveled. For once in his miserable life Starscream had been useful. For now Songbird would have no choice but to accompany him back to The Nemesis. Although the murderous look she was giving him was a bit worrying…

"Unfortunate turn of events?! Your little friends blew up my cave! How dare you even show your face to me again!" Songbird snapped. Forget murderous, her look was so terrifying it would've sent Unicron himself running away in terror!

"This is hardly my fault." Predaking retorted coldly.

"Tough! I'm holding you personally responsible for this entire mess you glitch head!" She snarled hatefully. "I should take your hide as recompense for my home!"

"Go ahead and try." Predaking growled, his golden eyes blazing with mounting agitation.

"With pleasure!" And with that she lunged for him; Predaking easily dodged out of the way of her claws but failed to avoid her long scythe-like tail and thus ended up receiving a deep slash across his broad chest. The pain thankfully wasn't to bad and Predaking inwardly decided that he would fight this battle without using his beast form… as a way of showing his superiority. He readied himself as Songbird roared at him and charged once more, but this time he was ready for her and punched her right in the face! The incredible strength of the blow momentarily dazed Songbird which gave Predaking ample time to unleash a barrage of vicious attacks. Punching and clawing at her, every blow dealing a great deal of damage. Finally he grabbed her by the neck, planning to slam her head to the ground and knock her unconscious; however there was one thing he had not planned on and that was Freefall… He had been so focused on fighting Songbird that he had not even noticed the two human children on her back! He was finally forced to take notice when Freefall had managed to climb away up onto Songbirds head whilst hefting the spear that had been on her back, the girls eyes burned with malice and using all of her strength, she hurled her spear straight into Predaking's optic!

The pain was so excruciating that Predaking accidentally released his grip on Songbird and began trying to pull the girls spear from his optic. Thankfully for him it would not lead to any permanent damage but it felt just like having a splinter in the eye… But by releasing Songbird he set himself up for some nasty payback, for in mere seconds the gryphon Predacon reared up and pinned him down and began slashing him over and over again with her claws! Finally she stood over him and began summoning a powerful blast of lightning in order to end this confrontation once and for all!

"No mama!" Moonrise exclaimed quickly jumping off of Songbird's back and landing right on Predaking's chest. "Please don't kill him!" It took all of Songbirds self-control and strength to redirect the lightning she had been creating into the sky. A truly frightening display of power that could be seen for miles in any direction. Once this was done she looked down at her youngest daughter and narrowed her sapphire optics.

"Get out of the way Moonrise." She commanded, but the little girl shook her head defiantly.

"No… he's really a good dragon, I can tell." The child explained innocently.

"Are you insane Moony?! Did you not see him attack our mother? Get off and let him fry!" Freefall hissed and just as she was about to go down there and forcefully pull Moonrise off of him, her sister looked up at Songbird and innocently suggested something.

"What do the cards say?" She asked making a quick gesture to Songbirds satchel where she kept her tarot cards. "You always say that the cards have never led you wrong and that you trust whatever feelings you get when you read them. So… why not look at the cars to decide what to do with him?"

"Why would you choose to speak on his behalf? This beast that you have never met nor seen before?" Songbird asked with a distinctive darkness in her tone; while not necessarily angry at Moonrise she could not fathom what had possessed the little girl to make her act like this.

"He… he has kind eyes, like yours mama." Was the child's only response before she looked up at her mother and gave her the sweetest _'puppy dog pout'_ she could muster… "Please Mama." Silence fell over all of the individuals in the group like a death shroud. Songbird herself remained motionless for a few long minutes before eventually sighing and removing her claws from Predaking, allowing him to stand up once Moonrise climbed off of him…

"Fine then… but only because you asked me my sweetspark. We will see what the cards have to say about this… dragon." She muttered coldly before reaching her claw into her satchel and searching for a tarot card to draw at random.

"Huh?" That was the only response Predaking could find to accurately portray his thoughts as he wondered just the frag was going on… Although he did use this momentary lapse of aggression to finally pull the bone spear out of his optic before quickly breaking it into a million pieces.

"Our mother is reading your fate." Freefall growled at him. "She'll be blowing you to hell immediately afterwards…" That was the only thing that would make any sense in her eyes. This creature was a threat, he meant their family harm and as far as she was concerned for that he deserved to die… Ignoring Freefall's comment, Songbird finally settled her claws on a random card and pulled it out… Although her thoughts initially mirrored Freefall's, surely this creature deserved to die for all the trouble he had caused. But as her luck would have it that was not in the cards. For the card she had drawn was The Chariot and no sooner had she laid her optics upon the cards image did a single very distinct thought enter her mind…

_Listen and go with him, for this creature shall lead you to where you are needed and ultimately to your fate…_

…_frag…_

Songbird growled angrily at this unforeseen turn of events and although she would have loved nothing more than to completely ignore what she had just foreseen Moonrise's words had rung very true. Never before had her skill with Divination lead her wrong… So maybe, just maybe there was something to this ornery dragon that she was overlooking…

"What is it that you really want?" She said icily and ignored the horrified look that she received from Freefall and she used her wing to quickly scoop up Moonrise from her position on the ground. This rather abrupt change in her demeanor from merely looking at a card was beyond surprising to Predaking and he couldn't help but stare for moment before regaining his lost senses…

"Contrary to what you may believe, I truly mean you no harm…" He explained as calmly as he could manage since he was still raging about her daring to attack him as well as the utter disrespect she had shown him as well. "I apologize for the destruction that has befallen your home and although it cannot be undone perhaps at the very least I can offer you a place to stay; once I bring the situation to Lord Megatron's attention he will happily accept you and your-" He trailed off a little bit as he looked at the two girls still on the gryphon's back.

"Sparklings." Songbird decided to fill in the blank for him.

"Your… sparklings..." Predaking could barely believe she was using that word to describe humans of all things! Still he would find a way to address the situation later. "Into his ranks. I'm sure that you will find it to be a satisfying arrangement."

"I will be the judge of that." Songbird retorted. "But… I will go with you to see this Megatron. After all he is partially responsible for causing me all this trouble isn't he?"

"I have got a bad feeling about this mom." Freefall whispered into Songbirds audios. She looked over at her eldest whispered quietly to her.

"You don't need to worry, if this does not work out we will figure out something else to do. I promised you that I would never let anything happen to you… and don't I always keep my promises?" While she was clearly still unhappy with the situation, Freefall accepted this and thus became quiet.

Songbird then turned her attention back to Predaking and made a motion with one of her claws. "Lead the way then… Predaking." When she said his name there was clearly a lot of animosity in her voice. Still he had gotten what he wanted… in a very loose sense… So Predaking quickly transformed and took to the air and after a moment he paused in his flight to look back at Songbird who had remained stationary on the ground and he gave a slight roar and jerked his head indicating for her to follow him into the sky.

_And although it broke her spark, Songbird wordlessly followed him away from the territory she and her daughters had dwelt in for the last five years…_

**First off I'm sorry for the slight delay with this chapter and I will try to prevent that from happening again; but there is something that I should've stated a bit earlier… in all honesty I personally don't know how to read Tarot cards and all the information that I'm putting into this story is based on research I've done into the subject… So I'm just going to apologize to anyone who actually knows how to really read tarot and it turns out I'm writing this all wrong. Either way I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and please remember to Read and Review!**


	5. To the Nemesis

_**Chapter 4**_

_**To the Nemesis**_

…_the long flight back to the Nemesis could be best described with two words…_

…_quiet and uncomfortable…_

Neither Songbird nor Predaking said a single word to one another. Of course it was more that Songbird wasn't speaking since Predaking was currently unable to speak whilst in his beast form. Not to mention that the female gryphon looked positively miserable and that made the entire situation all the more uncomfortable. Predaking growled inwardly, this was not what he wanted… _she_ was not what he wanted. He wanted companions, other Predacons that at the very least wouldn't blatantly disrespect him as she did. Not to mention the factor that she so obviously despised him and openly adored those two human children didn't make him feel any better either.

'_But things can still change.'_ He silently thought to himself. _'All I have to do is be patient. Surly she will come around after meeting with Lord Megatron and settling in on the Nemesis! I am sure that after a while she'll even tire of having those humans around and dispose of them!'_ These thoughts made him feel at least somewhat better and they also managed to distract him for the remainder of the flight to the Decepticon warship. When the Nemesis finally came into view Songbird came to a sudden stop; her jaw falling open in awe at the sight of the colossal vessel. But she quickly got a grip and after a few long minutes she followed Predaking over to one of the entrances and silently went inside.

* * *

_Megatron was not happy…_

Of course that would imply that there was a time where he actually was happy, which he never was… not since long before the war began. Still he was in a particularly foul mood since he had lost contact with Starscream and his squadron some hours earlier. He clenched his fist as anger coursed through him. Even though he already accepted the fact that his SIC was and always would be utterly useless, it still managed to make the energon in his veins boil when the Seeker failed him and at a task as simple as securing an energon deposit for Primus's sake! However he was drawn out of his thoughts by the sound of something massive approaching from behind signaling the return of another considerably more dangerous and worrying problem, Predaking. Megatron turned around just in time to witness the hulking creature transform. Although the brooding warlord was quick to notice that much of Predaking's body was adorned with deep scratches and lacerations. He raised an eye ridge at this bizarre sight, for even when the Predacon had fought the Autobots who had destroyed the others of his kind he'd emerged with nary a scratch on him, what could have possibly left him with such nasty wounds?

"Predaking? What has happened to you? Don't tell me that the Autobots are responsible for putting you in such a state." He inquired, careful to not let the Predacon see the utter loathe that he truly held for him. A loathe that Predaking was still completely oblivious too.

"No, Lord Megatron rest assured that it was not the Autobots who inflicted these injuries upon me and in spite of how they must look they are actually far from severe." He explained casting a cold glance down at his injuries; they didn't really look that bad did they? But he quickly shook those thoughts off and refocused on the situation at hand. "However I have some most extraordinary news-"

"Starscream successfully secured the new energon deposit?"

"No…" Predaking paused then snorted when thoughts of the Seeker crossed his processor. "That fool is incapable of accomplishing even the most basic of tasks. No my Lord, I have found something that will make the all of that energon seem insignificant." Megatron looked at him strangely but since his interest had been captured so Predaking continued… "Please allow me to introduce you to Songbird."

"Song-" Megatron's voice trailed off just as right behind Predaking the large and imposing frame of a second Predacon appeared. A very familiar Predacon… A Predacon that according to the scientist who created it, should be long dead at this point! Songbird walked past Predaking until she stood directly in front of the warlord; even though she was somewhat shorter than the hulking dragon that Predaking could become she was still much larger than Megatron. Her optics narrowed as she looked down at him… And as she was taking in what he looked like, an uncomfortable feeling began form within the back processor. Although what it was about she could not place at this time… But there was one thing she could tell instantly, he did not like her… and the feeling was mutual.

…_awkward silence…_

"So… after all this time the second Predacon lives." Megatron commented as he inspected Songbirds imposing frame; however she carefully positioned her wings in order to obscure Moonrise and Freefall from his view. Thankfully neither of the girls said anything or drew any attention to themselves and for this Songbird was grateful. However upon hearing his masters words Predaking's optics widened in disbelief.

"Second Predacon? You knew of her existence?" He questioned, confused at how her existence was a total shock to him and yet Megatron somehow seemed to know of her before him.

"Indeed." It was not Megatron who answered him but Shockwave who had just entered the room along with Soundwave and Knockout. Both whom immediately stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of yet another massive Predacon, undoubtedly confused since everyone had believed that Project Predacon had been _'terminated'_ by the Autobot's only a few months prior. So what in the name of Primus was a new Predacon doing here now?! Shockwave however seemed to take this new… complication… in stride and he appeared to be fascinated at the fact that yet another one of his creations was now present and accounted for. "Originally I created this Predacon along with you, you were both activated at the same time. But how it is alive now defies all logic." And with that he reached out to touch Songbird…

"Whatever part of you touches me isn't coming back." Songbird warned flatly. Of course the fact that she spoke out stopped Shockwave dead in his tracks. She glared icily down at the scientist just as a chill made its way up her spinal struts. She immediately knew that there was something… off… about him and that was putting mildly.

"It can speak in its beast form?" Megatron inquired just as surprised as everyone else was at this new revelation.

"It has a name…" She growled at him. "I believe that the dragon just stated it, my name is Songbird. And am I to presume that you are the one called Megatron? Or should I just refer to you as it." She was careful to say that last part with a great deal of spite. Successfully causing the entire room to go deathly quiet since no one in their right mind dare talk to Megatron in such a manner… Something that Predaking was completely aware of and thus he sought to defuse the situation before it even began to get out of control.

"Forgive her Master, she is not thinking about what she is saying! She means you no disrespect!" He quickly injected while giving Songbird an irritated glare. A look which she quickly returned to him a thousand fold.

"I can speak for myself!" She snapped before returning her attention back to Megatron. "As for my so called disrespect, I was merely returning to you the same lack of respect you were giving me… as for the main reason why I am here, it's because some **genius** decided to go and blow up my lair! The energon that you tried to steal belonged to me and now because of your actions my home has been destroyed! However…" And with this she took a moment and managed to calm down at least somewhat before continuing. "However there is no way you could have known that I was living there so I will not hold you accountable… but since I am currently homeless I would hope we could make an arrangement to rectify this situation."

"I am… listening." Megatron replied calmly.

"You have… an impressive air fortress. Surly you must have some spare rooms?"

"You can't be serious!" Freefall suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs, alerting every Decepticon in the room to the presence of the two children on Songbirds back. Songbird herself flinched at her daughter's outburst, as she had been hoping to avoid bringing attention to her children at all during this little meeting… she should have known that wouldn't happen. She may have been a lucky individual but even she wasn't **that** lucky.

"Freefall-" She started to speak, only to be cut off by her outraged daughter.

"No! We don't need their help! We are better off on our own!" The girl seethed and glanced around, giving the evil eye to everyone in the room especially Predaking. "This is a mistake! A bad idea on a hundred million fragging levels!"

"Freefall that's enough!" Songbird snarled. "You will not talk back or question me again!" Immediately Freefall went deathly quiet and even flinched away from her mother's angry voice. It might be surprising, but over the five years that they had lived together Songbird had virtually never had to really raise her voice at her adopted children. So on the rare occasion she yelled at them it must have been due to something major…

"You… have pets?" Megatron inquired as he got closer to inspect the two small organics; Freefall had to bite down hard on her tongue to restrain herself from calling the Decepticon warlord several inappropriate names… Buckethead being very near the top of this list... Moonrise on the other hand merely looked up with her usual fearless, naïve little eyes. Completely oblivious to the ice cold glare Megatron was giving to her and her sister.

"They are not pets!" Songbird corrected hotly. "They are my children, my sparklings."

"Whatever you may call them, you should teach that one to choose its words more wisely." Megatron grunted; although he found this Predacons declaration of two humans being her sparklings to be surprising it was hardly the most bizarre thing at this moment. Immediately Freefall lost her temper again and went to say something snappy back at him but a loud growl and a quick glare from Songbird caused her words to die before she could voice them.

"As I was saying…" Songbird continued drawing this conversation away from her daughters. "You must have some rooms available, would you be inclined to allow me and my sparklings to stay in one? Naturally this would not be a permanent arrangement, it would only be until I can find something better suited to our needs then we would simply go our separate ways… Hopefully to never cross paths again." Upon hearing these words Predaking went to say something but Megatron held a hand up to him, wordlessly silencing him.

"Your request is… interesting. It is certainly simple enough, but what is it that you could offer for your end of this bargain?"

"My services." Songbird explained. "Until I can find a new home I will… assist you in whatever tasks you need completed around here. Provided of course that they are within reason." She hastily added that last part, just to be on the safe side. Megatron was quiet as he considered Songbird's proposal; although the concept of having another Predacon on board his warship made his tanks churn, he knew that sending her away might bring about some problems with Predaking. For as long as the foolish Predacon still believed that the Decepticon leader would resurrect the rest of his species he could be useful… but to turn away Songbird may cause him to question his masters true intent and Megatron didn't want that, at least not at this time… However the gryphon Predacon's priorities seem to radically differ from that of her counterpart and he could tell that there was also a great deal of friction between the two; he smiled as a malicious plan began to formulate in his mind.

_Perhaps there was a way to kill two Predacon's with one stone…_

"I will accept your offer." He said just as a loud sound split through the air and in under a minute the charred and heavily damaged form of Starscream made its way onto the bridge.

"Lord Megatron I have some most distressing news!" The Seeker shrieked as he somehow failed to notice that Songbird was actually on the bridge. "While I was in the process of securing the energon deposit I made a most horrific discovery! There is another-"

"Starscream." Megatron cut him off rather abruptly and then motioned over to where Songbird was currently standing and now leering at the Second in Command. "Allow me to introduce you to Songbird; although I take it you two have already met…" Still it was amusing as a look of utter terror suddenly filled the Seeker's face as Songbird proceeded to walk up and look him dead in the optic.

"Boo!" Admittedly it did bring her a bit of sick pleasure when Starscream squeaked indignantly and proceeded to hide behind Knockout. "Has anyone ever told you that you have the spinal struts of a gummy bear?" She commented dryly and for the first time the Nemesis's medic captured Songbirds attention. He stared right back at her although strangely he didn't seem afraid, in fact he seemed indifferent to the entire situation. Having been quietly watching everything that had gone on with cold optics…

_If Songbird had to pick a single word to describe just how he looked she couldn't think of a better word than broken…_

She managed to look him over once before she felt a servo pulling on her wing; Songbird looked over only to see that Shockwave had seized her wing and was inspecting it. "I said don't touch me you mono-optic moron!" She roared before rearing onto her hind legs and swatting him clean across the bridge and into a wall. A blue light began to shine within her mouth as she started to create what would undoubtedly be a lethal blast of lightning, only to have Megatron step in between her and her target.

"Since you will be staying on board my vessel you will **NOT** attack any of my officers!" He growled menacingly and he pointed his arm cannon warningly at up Songbird. She glared angrily at him for a few moments before yielding and she let all of the energy that had been building disperse… although she did cough out a few blue sparks immediately afterwards.

"But the Cyclops started it!" Moonrise pointed out bluntly. Much like Songbird she was picking up on something that she didn't like coming from the scientist. But the youngster quickly found her words fell on deaf audios and Songbird sent her youngest child a warning glance which quickly made the little one go very quiet.

"You would be wise to remember that as of now you serve the Decepticons… that being said; Predaking why don't you escort your fellow Predacon to her new room. She may have her pick of any of the empty berthrooms." Megatron explained. "Unless she would prefer to stay with you in your kennel." Of course Predaking went to agree with this option but…

"I am **NOT** staying in a kennel!" She made her point very clear much to Predaking's dismay. "I'll take one of these other rooms that you are offering."

"Fine… Soundwave perhaps you should be the one to show Songbird to the other rooms?" Acknowledging his commanders request Soundwave made a slight motion with his hand the indicating for the femme Predacon to follow, which she did without so much as a word. Once his Third in Command and Songbird were out of hearing range Megatron returned his attention to the clearly dismayed dragon Predacon.

"A word of caution Predaking," He said with false concern. "As pleased as you must be to have another of your kind with you; you must not let this femme treat you with such blatant disrespect. You are a king are you not? Do whatever you must to assert your dominance over her… otherwise it will be you bowing to her in the end."

"Rest assured Lord Megatron I have no intention of letting that happen." Predaking explained coldly, his optics glancing in the direction of the hallway that Songbird and Soundwave had disappeared down. "My patience with her is already growing thin. If she disrespects me again I will put her in her place." And with that he turned around and stormed down the hallway that led to his private quarters… He preferred to use that term over kennel. Although he did not blame him for his poor wording, inwardly Predaking wondered if Songbird might have reconsidered staying with him if Megatron hadn't referred to his room as a kennel in the first place…

"My Lord what are we going to do?!" Starscream nervously asked once Predaking was gone. "Just when we thought we would only have to deal with one beast another one appears! I thought the second one was supposed to be long dead?!"

"As unexpected as this situation is Starscream, I believe that it can work to our advantage. If the two beasts remain as hostile as they currently are towards one another… They may very well end up killing each other." Megatron explained. "However I am still unhappy with this new development Shockwave; why is that Predacon still alive when you originally said it was too weak to keep living?"

"I am as baffled as you are my Lord. The femme's spark should not have lasted more than several hours according to my calculations… aside from the obvious color of her optics and highlights changing, she somehow seems to be able to control lightning rather than fire… It is something that is not logically possible."

"Couldn't it just been a variant within the species?" Megatron inquired.

"Negative. According to my analysis all Predacon's were only capable of breathing fire. It is unclear how such a mutation occurred." He went silent for a few minutes, deep in thought.

"Or maybe you're just not as smart as you think you are. It wouldn't be the first decision you made that blew up in your face." Knockout stated hotly, although for some unknown reason his words were angry yet there remained something in his voice that sounded… hollow. No one knew exactly when or why Knockout's personality had first started to change, but at this point the once vain and self-centered medic was a ghost of his former self… he had stopped sneaking off to go street racing, in fact he rarely even left the med bay anymore. While often a topic of conversation amongst the Vehicons and Eradicons, the rest of the officers and Megatron could've cared less… In fact they were even pleased that they no longer had to deal with Knockouts troublesome antics anymore.

"Your logic is incorrect Knockout." Shockwave said so simply that it was obvious he could've cared less about whatever the medic was angry about. "But I would have to agree with your reasoning Lord Megatron; there is a high probability that the two can be pushed to violent confrontations…" Megatron just chuckled darkly.

_We will just have to wait and see…_

* * *

Soundwave led Songbird into one of the larger unused berthrooms, it wasn't anything special, in fact it was pretty much just a spacious room with a single large berth. But to Songbird it was more than enough for her and her sparklings.

"This will do nicely; thank you." She said as she went inside and began inspecting the berth. It was a bit strange to her since she had never slept on one before, having always been laying on the ground in her cave. The silent mech merely nodded and went on his way, undoubtedly returning to the bridge. Leaving Songbird and her daughters alone at last.

"So… we're really staying here?" Freefall asked timidly one Songbird had climbed up onto the berth and allowed her daughters to slip of her back and lay against her side. Although the young girl knew her adoptive mother would never hurt her, some part of her was still afraid to speak after getting yelled at.

"I'm afraid so my sweetspark. I know that you're not exactly pleased with this and quite frankly neither am I… But it will do for now until we can find a new home." The Gryphon vented sadly as she then looked down at her sparklings. "Freefall I know you only mean well, but you must not talk back to me like that again. Do you understand?"

"I understand, it's just… that I got a bad feeling about all of this, I just don't want anything bad to happen to you or Moony."

Songbird chuckled slightly at this. "Nothing will ever happen to me, that much I can assure you right now. And you know I would never allow any harm to befall you or your sister. Just leave the worrying to me Freefall, I'll always be here to take care of you." Getting that cleared up relieved some of the tension that had befallen the family at least somewhat until Songbird realized something that made her mentally kick herself. "You two must be hungry… I'm sorry but I have nothing to feed you tonight."

"Actually I feel like I never want to eat again." Freefall admitted, the stress of the day having obviously taken quite a toll on her emotionally as well as physically.

"I'm not really hungry either, I ate too many berries earlier." Moonrise chirped. The total opposite of her sister, she did not see the day as being stressful she saw it as the beginning of an adventure. Moony was the embodiment of innocence pure and simple. "Mama, could you sing to us tonight? Please?" Even after obtaining her name, Songbird never once thought that she would live up to it… But as fate would have it she had developed quite a singing voice. Originally she had just been singing to herself in the odd moment she found herself alone, but as fate would have it Moonrise and Freefall had overheard her ever since that day the two had asked her to sing for them regularly. A request that Songbird was happy to oblige…

"Alright then my sparklings. But just the one song tonight…" Songbird said and she quietly waited for her two children to get themselves comfortable before she began to sing...

**In the woodlands low, born of ice and snow,  
there's a maiden weeping tonight.  
Snow falls softly 'neath the winter moon…  
**

**Forest bare and white, she dwells there by night;  
listen to her cry sorrow's song.  
Tears falls softly 'neath the winter moon.  
**

**Breathless, icy, bright. Daughter of the night.  
Oh, who do you cry for?  
Keening softly 'neath the winter moon.  
**

**Fuyu no tsuki, fuyu no tsuki, kanashimi utsusu fuyu no tsuki  
Kogoeru fuyu no tsuki no yoru ni yuki no otome hana o mistuke ni  
yuki ni umoreta sanrin no naka o tabi tsuzukena sai  
**

**Traveler passing through, feet all bare, his smile was true.  
His eyes shone with starlight.  
He waked softly 'neath the winter moon.**

**Love made my heart soar, you're the one I've waited for!  
Stay with me forever!  
She cried softly 'neath the winter moon.  
**

**In the snow he stayed, from my side he did not stray.  
My hands could not warm him…  
He died softly 'neath the winter moon…**

**Fuyu no tsuki, fuyu no tsuki, kanashimi utsusu fuyu no tsuki  
Kogoeru fuyu no tsuki no yoru ni yuki no otome hana o mistuke ni  
yuki ni umoreta sanrin no naka o tabi tsuzukena sai  
**

_The girls were sound asleep before the song ended…_

And only once was Songbird absolutely sure that they were asleep did she gently drape one of her large feathery wings over the two sleeping forms, in order to better keep them warm and safe. But Songbird herself did not go to sleep; as quietly as she could she pulled her entire deck tarot cards out of her satchel and she shuffled the deck. Well, at least as good as any creature that only had three sharp talons could do. It was time for her to do a reading; for in spite of how she acted in front Predaking and the Decepticons she was really intimidated as hell.

It was not in her nature at least as far as she knew, to be a social creature. But that had changed when she had found her daughters. They had been the ones who gave her _reason_… They gave her a _reason_ to learn to speak, they gave her _reason_ to hunt and they gave her a _reason_ to keep trespassers out of her domain. They gave her the most precious thing she could have ever possibly obtained; they gave her something to love…

But now here she was thrown into a completely unexpected and extremely dangerous situation. It was times like this that she was grateful for her gifts of premonition and divination. Perhaps in another time she would've been considered a mystic, since she believed so strongly in her own brand of magic. Silently she drew her cards, six in total one for each of the main group of Decepticons.

'_Show me what I need to know.'_ Songbird thought silently to herself. _'Let's start with the one called Starscream.'_ And she then proceeded to turn over one of the six cards.

**The Fool **

'_No surprise there. It's not very often that the cards are so literal in their meaning.' _Songbird thought with the slightest hint of amusement in her inner voice. While The Fool could have many meanings like with all tarot cards, she perceived this one to be literal only to its namesake. Although there was not a doubt in her mind that he could be dangerous, he was far from being her most pressing trouble. _'Now let's try another. How about the silent one; I believe his name is Soundwave?' _She turned over another card intending to see something hopefully a little less obvious than the first one she read.

**Nine Swords**

'_Someone who has experienced incredible despair, loneliness and pain. An individual with terrible anxiety and yet through it all tries to maintain some form of inner peace. Though their looming troubles may deny them a peaceful recharge.'_ Not exactly what she was expecting to see but for some bizarre reason it seemed appropriate. To Songbird this reading brought about some pity for the mech but that hardly meant she was going to lower her guard around him anytime soon. _'Now for the red mech…'_

**The Tower**

'_He has been through a lot to say the least. There has been so much change and all it has brought about is misery. Loss and pain have become constant companions and joy is but a distant memory.'_ And here she was thinking that the last reading inspired pity, that was nothing compared to this one. What? Were all individuals on board this ship mentally damaged? Shaking her head, Songbird turned over another card only this one was meant to read none other than Megatron himself.

**The Emperor**

'_This individual is someone of strong character who demands respect and holds a position of high authority and power. But he is a conniving, cold spirited mech who is incapable of accepting defeat and cannot deal with emotional loss… He truly cares and values very few individuals so be warned.'_ While this was to be expected what surprised Songbird the most was to learn that he cared for anybody other than himself at all! That being said Songbird moved on to the next individual and decided it was time to learn a little bit about Predaking.

**Two Cups**

'…_someone seeking connection. A lonely individual who has found someone and is attempting to reach out for companionship. Social skills need work…'_ Honestly Songbird did not read that last part in the cards that was her own personal opinion. She vented softly, suddenly feeling a bit guilty for how she had treated the dragon. But in her own defense her own social skills sucked just as bad as his did. Songbird remained silent and still for quite some time while she became lost in her thoughts; eventually she managed to bring herself back to reality and pushed the thoughts of her fellow Predacon from her processor. She had one final card to read and quite frankly it was the one that worried her the most. _'The Cyclops.'_

**The Devil**

It was as though the tarot cards had just confirmed her fears. _'A cruel and cunning individual, merciless in pursuit of their goals and intolerant to anything or anyone who gets in their way. Fear this one for he means you and yours harm.'_ This bothered Songbird, this bothered her a lot. She had clearly heard what he had said about being the one who created both her and Predaking, quite frankly that didn't matter since she valued how she was reborn more so than how she was originally created… This Cyclops had cold and calculating aura around him, almost like he would love nothing more than to slice her open while she was still alive to see how she worked. That thought gave her a chill up her spinal struts… But that was it. She was done. There was nothing else to see tonight, so she collected her cards and put them back in her satchel. Before eventually closing her optics and falling into a recharge that was plagued by nightmares...

**I'm just going to take a sec here to point out that the song that Songbird sang in this chapter is called Winter Moon by Erutan. Alright everyone that's it for this chapter! As always please remember to Read and Review! Reviews are loved and can get me to update quicker!**


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